Want to jump straight to the answer? The best call center software for most people is Nextiva or RingCentral.
With the right software, you can set up your call center without running any new wires or waiting months to deploy. Phone, video, chat, text–choose the channels you need and get your team set up in hours, not months.
All of my recommendations here just need the internet–there’s no expensive hardware to buy. You may even be able to use your existing devices to manage your call center needs.
The 9 Best Call Center Software of 2022
- Nextiva — Best overall (For a limited time get 25% off, plus a free phone, when you sign up!)
- RingCentral — Easiest deployment for SMBs
- Cloudtalk — Best call center software for remote teams
- Freshdesk— Simple contact center software for teams of all sizes
- 8×8 — Best contact center software for enterprise-grade security
- Five9 — Best all-in-one contact center software
- CrazyCall — Best call center software for outbound sales
- Zendesk Talk — Best call center software for support and automated ticketing
- Talkdesk — Best call center software for end-to-end customer experience
I focused on finding call center software that is easy enough to use for employees and administrators. You shouldn’t have to call the vendor to add an extension or switch up a phone tree. Maybe 10 years ago that was normal, but today’s call center software is a lot more approachable.
As we continue through this guide, I’ll give you an in-depth review of each provider on this list. I’ll discuss the features, benefits, pricing, and other considerations so you can make an informed decision for your business.
Best Call Center Software Reviews
Nextiva – Best Overall
- Affordable call center software
- Add-on to Nextiva VoIP service
- Get Nextiva One + call center for under $70
- Intelligent call distribution
Nextiva is a popular business communications company with excellent software for call centers. All of their products are competitively priced, and the Nextiva platform takes no time for new agents to learn.
If you just need voice communication, Nextiva can set you up with the essential features. If you want to add chat, text, and email, you can do that, too.
Because it can support these additional channels, it’s marketed as Nextiva Contact Center rather than just call center.
Because it’s a cloud-based call center, deployment is quick and there’s no hardware required. This is definitely one of the faster, more economic ways to get a call center off the ground.
And it’s way less of an IT headache. Agents sign into their Nextiva account to make or answer calls. Rather than rely on your phone system and security, they can rely on Nextiva. This is a dream if you have remote workers.
The thing I like most about Nextiva is that most of the setup is stuff you can handle on your own. Setting up a phone tree or an auto-attendant? Any administrator can build these out quickly on the Nextiva platform without having to call IT.
Every plan they offer can fully support a call center. Voicemail, call routing, call recording–everything is handled in the web-based platform.
You can integrate landline phones by using Nextiva’s business phone service if you want, but call centers are definitely trending towards the cloud.
You’ll have to get in touch with Nextiva for pricing, though they advertise prices as low as $50/agent per month. They offer the following packages for their Contact Center solution:
Core
- Inbound/Outbound voice
- Desktop contact center app
Premium
- Chat, email, text
- Essential quality management
Optimum
- Enterprise quality management
- Enterprise workforce management
Ultimate
- Interactions analytics
- No-code workflows
- Advanced automation
When you reach out, you’ll work with one of their reps to find the right plan. Smaller operations will be fine with Core, or Premium if they need the digital channels.
Larger call centers will definitely from the workforce management features and QA tools that come with Optimum and Ultimate plans. Administrators will get more tools to dig into agent performance to find out who’s doing well and who needs support.
Nextiva offers a built-in CRM, but you can connect a ton of the most popular solutions out there with pre-built integrations.
This is a no-fuss call center solution. You can reach out to Nextiva’s expert customer service 24/7, but you may not need to call them. Getting a CRM hooked up to a call center is never a picnic, but the Nextiva team is there to help.
Get in touch with Nextiva today to find out more about their award-winning call center solutions.
RingCentral – Easiest Deployment for SMBs
- Great for sales & service teams
- 40+ robust features
- 99.99% guaranteed uptime
- Wide range of options
RingCentral can help you create a call center without spending a ton of money or waiting months before you can actually use the phones.
You can support any channel, but if you just want voice, RingCentral has that at a great price. If you want to add channels over time, it’s a simple upgrade.
RingCentral has tons of pre-built integrations with popular software and runs on virtually any technology. This is going to minimize disruption and surprise spending.
You can connect your call center to your CRM, ERP, or marketing automation software to RingCentral. Put critical customer information and powerful tools in the hands of every employee without having to build the whole integration out yourself.
It’s also a great option for remote and work-from-home employees. Everyone is signing right into RingCentral, so your company doesn’t have to worry about maintaining a firewall or setting up VPNs for employees on-the-go.
There’s just a lot less for your team to worry about when it comes to deploying RingCentral. Sure, it’ll take some time to tune everything up with your CRM, but a lot of the traditional call center headaches are off your plate.
It’s also very easy for people to learn. You don’t have to be some telecom guru to set up a phone tree.
RingCentral Contact Center has more than 40 robust features like intelligent routing, call queueing, and workforce management tools. You’ll also benefit from administrative and management features like surveys, call recording, and analytics.
RingCentral is safe, secure, and reliable. They have a guaranteed uptime of 99.99%, and the software gives your agents the ability to work from anywhere.
Here’s an overview of the RingCentral Contact Center plans:
Essentials
- Inbound voice support
- Standard IVR and ACD capabilities
Standard
- Digital channels
- Advanced voice recording
Premium
- Omnichannel support and integrations (email, chat, SMS, social media)
- Advanced IVR and ACD
- Quality management
Ultimate
- Inbound and outbound voice
- Predictive, progressive, and preview dialing
- Campaign management
You’ll need to contact the RingCentral sales team to get a quote for your business.
But as you can see, they have options for everyone. Smaller teams that only need solutions for inbound calls can use the Basic plan. The standard call routing capabilities will be more than enough for a simple phone tree.
If you want omnichannel inbound call center support, the Advanced option will be best for you. For both inbound and outbound calling, you’ll need the Ultimate plan.
This is going to centralize every channel your team uses–talk, text, voice, video, and chat–within a single dashboard. It makes your employees lives a lot easier.
RingCentral is a trusted name in the VoIP phone and video industry. Their call center software is consistent with the high-level quality you’d expect from this provider.
Cloudtalk – Best Call Center Software for Remote Teams
- Great for remote teams
- Smart IVR feature guides callers where they need to go
- Starts at $20 per user per month
- Salesforce integration with Expert plan
Cloudtalk offers remote-ready phone center services at a great price.
With more than 2,500 call centers powered by Cloudtalk, They’re trusted by businesses like Fujitsu, Mercedes-Benz, Booksy, DHL, and more. So you’ll be in good company if you use them.
They stand out because they allow you to run virtual call centers from anywhere in the world. As the name suggests, they leverage cloud technology to give you a secure calling experience.
Cloudtalk’s intuitive platform also includes a great dashboard that gives you insight into your customer when their call is in the queue. This gives you a chance to anticipate their needs before you even speak with them.
Cloudtalk’s Smart IVR is a standout feature. It is an interactive voice response system that routes calls to exactly the people who need to take them. You’ll also be able to choose language preferences and map out the customer journey with their drag and drop call flow designer.
Here’s a look at their annual plans:
Starter — $20 per user per month
- Unlimited inbound and intercompany calls
- Click to call
- Automated call distribution
- Mobile app
- Unlimited call queuing
- International numbers
Essential — $25 per user per month
- All features in the Starter plan
- Advanced analytics
- Real-time client dashboard
- Integrations with other systems
- Open API
- Skill-based routing
- Smart queueing
- SMS messaging
- Workflow automation
Expert — $40 per user per month
- All features in the Essential plan
- Salesforce integrations
- Power dialer
- Smart dialer
- Call monitoring
- Wallboards
- Account manager
- Speech to text
- Sentiment score
- Unlimited concurrent calls
Custom — Contact for pricing
- All feature in the Expert plan
- Custom onboarding
- Unlimited outbound calls
- Enterprise-level security
- Developer support
- Custom reporting
- SLA
I’d go with the Essential plan at a bare minimum. The integrations and analytics tools alone make it worth the extra five bucks per user a month. Overall though, this is a solid investment for any remote or distributed teams.
>> Compare QuotesFreshdesk – Simple Contact Center Software For Teams of All Sizes
- Free 21-day trial
- Cloud-based solution
- Wide range of features
- Used by 50,000+ customers
>> Compare Quotes
Freshdesk Contact Center, formerly known as Freshcaller, is call center software provided by Freshworks. They’re another well-known, trusted, and established name in the world of business solutions.
Like other Freshworks products, Freshdesk is a cloud-based solution that’s both simple and modern. It’s easy for any business to use, regardless of its size and technical expertise.
More than 50,000 businesses use Freshdesk’s software for a call center. It’s used by inbound sales agents as well as customer support teams.
Pricing for Freshdesk is a bit unique. You’ll pay a monthly rate for the plan you select based on the features offered. But you’ll also pay per minute based on usage.
Let’s take a look at those plans first before we dive into the usage rates.
Free — $0
- Inbound caller ID
- Custom greetings
- Desktop notifications
- Call metrics
Growth — $15 per agent per month (billed annually)
- Up to 2000 incoming minutes per month free
- Basic call queues
- Number porting
- Wait queues
- Voicemail
- Warm transfer
- Call recording
- Pre-built reports
Pro — $39 per agent per month (billed annually)
- Up to 3000 incoming minutes per month free
- Advanced call metrics
- Agent extensions
- Call center agent statuses
- Routing automation
- Power dialer
- Call monitoring
- IVR (phone trees)
- Call conferencing
- Bring your own carrier
- Call tagging
Enterprise — $69 per agent per month (billed annually)
- Up to 5000 incoming minutes per month free
- Abandoned call metrics
- Service level monitoring
- Omnichannel routing
- Speech-enabled IVR (phone trees)
- Voicebot
- Includes 5000 bot sessions per month
From startups to growing teams and global companies, Freshdesk has an option for everyone.
Call rates are based on factors like device (browser vs. phone), country, and whether or not the call is incoming or outgoing. Incoming rates start as low as $0.014 per minute, and outgoing rates start at $0.022 per minute.
To see an estimate for your needs, try the Freshdesk Call Center Estimator to help calculate the cost for the average calls per month, duration, plan, number of agents, location, and more.
You can try Freshdesk for free with a 21-day trial.
>> Compare Quotes8×8 – Best Contact Center Software For Enterprise-Grade Security
- Customized Solutions
- Omnichannel routing
- Real-time analytics
- Improve agency productivity
The longstanding communications provider 8×8 offers a complete contact center solution. Tie together all of your channels in a single location to give your employees the best possible footing
Top features include skills-based call routing, queued callback, web callback and IVR (interactive voice response). 8×8 also has inbound chat, email, and social channel contact solutions for your call center software.
This means that your call center agents will be able to communicate with customers on any channel from within a single platform. In today’s world, it’s so important to give your teams the ability to see the entire customer conversation across every channel.
You’ll also benefit from real-time analytics and reports. This information is available from any device. It details customer journeys and wait times for every customer across all channels.
8×8 also helps you improve productivity. A private knowledge base, expert connect, simple interface, and comprehensive communication hub ensures that all customer communication is handled quickly and efficiently.
Your 8×8 Contact Center integrates with CRMs like Zendesk, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and more.
8×8 is a top solution for large businesses and enterprises. It has advanced features with a global reach.
The 8×8 Contact Center has exceptional security. It’s compliant with HIPAA, FISMA, and more. 8×8 has tools to ensure privacy for sensitive data entry fields as well.
You’ll need to contact the 8×8 sales team for a custom quote on your solution.
Five9 – Best All-In-One Contact Center Software
- All-in-one contact center solution
- Cloud-based solutions
- Work from anywhere
- 2,000+ business customers
>> Compare Quotes
Five9 is an all-in-one contact center solution.
The Five9 Intelligence Cloud Contact Center gives your customer service agents the power and flexibility to work from anywhere.
Five9 is completely customizable. It’s built to meet the needs of your business, regardless of your size or industry. The software delivers crystal clear voice, strong security, and a 99.99% uptime rate.
The top features and benefits of an all-in-one contact center software include:
- CRM integration
- Open platform APIs
- Call routing
- Omnichannel support
- Global voice
- Self-service tools
- Analytics
- WFO
- Predictive dialing
Five9 has a wide range of solutions based on the type of business you have. They provide call center software for sales, telemarketing, customer service, collections, outsourcers, small business, medium-sized businesses, and enterprises.
The Five9 contact center is fast, reliable, affordable, and easy to use. Contact their sales team to request a demo and get a custom quote.
>> Compare QuotesCrazyCall – Best Call Center Software For Outbound Sales
- 14-day free trial
- Plans start at $11/month
- Makes sales calls more efficient
- Great solution for sales teams
>> Compare Quotes
CrazyCall is a top call center solution for sales teams. It offers features like auto dialing, call monitoring, call script, call transfers, click to call, and a callback widget.
Their features are tailormade to optimize your call center’s sales.
CrazyCall has other solutions for ecommerce shops, small businesses, and support teams, but the sales features are still the highlight of this software. It even has tools for lead generation on your website. That’s an incredibly useful tool.
Here’s an overview of the CrazyCall plans and prices:
Starter — $11 per month per user
- 200 free minutes per user each month
- 45 days of data storage
- 3 active projects
Team — $22 per month per user
- 500 free minutes per user each month
- 365 days of data storage
- Unlimited active projects
Professional — $45 per month per user
- 1,250 free minutes per user each month
- Unlimited data storage
- IP restriction
- Tailored reporting tools
- Unlimited calls to US and Canada
All plans come with a free phone number, API and integrations, and 24/7 customer support. The free minutes each month apply to 122 countries. Beyond that, calls to US landlines start at just $0.01 per minute.
You can try CrazyCall for free with a 14-day trial.
>> Compare QuotesZendesk – Best Call Center Software For Support and Automated Ticketing
- Free lite plan
- Upgrades start at $19/mo
- Cloud-based solution
- Integrates with Zendesk Support
>> Compare Quotes
Zendesk Talk is a cloud-based call center solution is built directly into the ticketing system for Zendesk Support.
Your agents will have access to the full customer history and additional features like call recording and automatic ticket creation.
The software is designed to improve your support process, while eliminating unproductive tasks. Your agents can focus on solutions, conversions, and customers, as opposed to workflow bottlenecks.
Top features of Zendesk Talk include:
- Inbound and outbound calling
- Custom greetings
- Local and toll-free numbers
- Browser-based calls
- Call forwarding to phones
- Call blocking
- Conference calling
- Group routing
- Callback from queue
- Inbound and outbound SMS
- Advanced analytics
- Real-time dashboard
- Call recording and call record permissions
Similar to other call center software on our list, Zendesk Talk is based on a combination of your plan and usage.
Zendesk Talk has a wide range of plans for you to choose from. The list and features for each one are quite extensive. So rather than giving you a complete overview of those, I’ll just quickly cover the starting prices to give you an idea of the cost.
- Lite — Starting at $0
- Team — Starting at $19 per agent per month
- Professional — Starting at $49 per agent per month
- Enterprise — Starting at $89 per agent per month
Zendesk offers a paid partner edition starting at $9 per agent per month. This is for every agent taking calls with Zendesk Support. To estimate your usage rates, Zendesk Talk has a calculator tool that you can play around with.
>> Compare QuotesTalkdesk – Best Call Center Software For End-To-End Customer Experience
- End-to-end customer experience
- Omnichannel support
- Customized solutions
- Used by 1,800+ businesses
>> Compare Quotes
Talkdesk offers tools and software for things like customer engagement, workforce engagement, and reporting.
But their contact center software is their most popular product — and for good reason. It’s an end-to-end customer experience solution designed the meet the needs and expectations of the modern customer.
These people have a certain expectation when they call your company. Talkdesk will help you improve productivity while reducing costs and increasing the customer experience.
Top features of Talkdesk include:
- Outbound dialer
- Customer self-service
- Omnichannel support
- Agent desktop and mobile agent tools
- Call recording
- Integrations with Salesforce, Zendesk, Slack, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc.
- AI virtual assistant
- Reporting and analytics
For the most part, Talkdesk is used by businesses across a handful of major industries. This includes retail, ecommerce, financial services, healthcare, travel, and hospitality.
Talkdesk has solutions based on call center type (sales, support, BPO) and business size (small, mid, enterprise).
Contact the Talkdesk sales team today for a quote. Join the 1,800+ businesses like Peleton, IBM, and Dropbox using this call center software.
>> Compare QuotesHow to Choose the Best Call Center Software For Your Business
With all of these options, how do you choose which is best for your company?
This is the methodology that we use and recommend here at Quick Sprout. Use these guidelines to decide what is best for your company.
Omnichannel Support
A good call center service gives you multiple ways to get in contact with your customers.
That way, they’ll have more flexibility to reach you— helping ensure client satisfaction.
Consider if you want to integrate those communication tools like email, live chat, and social media into your call center software. This will allow your agents to better serve the needs of your customers throughout each stage of the support process.
Call Center Type
The type of call center you run will be a big determining factor in your research.
Do you need software to support inbound calls only? Or do your agents need outbound dialing capabilities? Not every solution offers both.
The purpose of these calls will also have an impact on the software you choose. There are certain options that are better for sales, while others are better for customer support, troubleshooting, and ticketing.
Integrations
The best call center software will integrate with your CRM solution.
Some of the options on our list have their own full-service CRM systems as well. So you could potentially get an all-in-one solution from the same provider.
Pricing
It’s important that you have a clear understanding of how you’ll be billed for customer call center software. Not every company lists its prices online.
In most cases, you’ll pay based on a combination of usage and support agents. The majority of call center solutions have different plans for different features you need. Make sure to find one that best fits your needs and budget.
Compare Quotes From The Best Call Center Software
Get matched up with the call center software that fits your specific needs.
The Top Call Center Software in Summary
The world today is digital—but phone support still plays a crucial role in customer service. That means having good call center software to power your support. Nextiva and RingCentral are the best call center software solutions on the market.
Every business providing phone support for customers can benefit from call center software. From startups to enterprises and everything in between, you can find what you need using our guide and methodology.
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